Over 4th of July weekend, the Toy Wizards headed out to Anime Expo at the Los Angeles Convention center. While our sister site, PopLurker, is in the process of wrapping up the full show review, we over here are focusing on one specific aspect of the show.

The toys!

One thing I always say when I go to Anime-centric conventions is that it’s really interesting to see merchandising trends. For example, twenty years ago when I attended my first Anime Expo, no one said weeb, waifu, or carried pillows. Now they do. While Gundam model kits were always a standard, back then they were extremely expensive and the only ones you could (easily) find was based on whatever series was currently on television. And even then, I wasn’t ever too sure if those kits were bootlegs or not.

Now, Gundam (and other mini-pla) kits have exploded and you can see very affordable licensed kits stacked in many vendor booths.

One new trend to anime “toys” is the popularity of the FigPin. For manufactures, these are great. They’re cheaper than action figures to mass produce and cost nearly as much as a Super7 ReAction Figure for customers. People are eating them up.

It was really amazing to see (in person) the Vision of Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop models from Good Smile Company that we’d reported on earlier this year on Toy Wizards. That’s some of the best part of toy journalism– the moment you get to actually see the thing you gushed about right in front of you.

And speaking of which, getting to see the Storm Collectibles Street Fighter figures in person, beautifully presented, was so, so amazing. Believe me when I say that getting to see the scale and poseability in person completely took my breath away.

Check out the rest of our Anime Expo 2019 toy gallery below!

Anime Expo 2019 Toy Gallery:

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